Tag: notebook

Gmund is one of the best paper manufacturers in Europe and while I don’t see many “Gmund” branded products, their paper is often a top choice for use in custom stationery and correspondence as well as high end business brochures and packaging.

Gmund is based in Gmund am Tegernsee, Germany and can trace it’s roots back to 1829. With over thirty product lines (each with numerous variations) there is a wide variety of offerings, everything from the high-tech to the traditional.

The book I am reviewing today is the Bavarian Book with the Vichy-Deer pattern. The linen fabric on the cover is supposed to resemble a fabric that would be used on a Dirndl (a traditional Bavarian dress).

The notebook is an A5 size with 120 blank pages (60 leafs) that are held together with a sewn binding. The softcover is flexible and the linen fabric provides a nice tactile feel.

The Gmund logo is debossed on the back of the cover.

The bright white pages are pretty thick (thicker than 80 GSM Rhodia paper) and hold fountain pen ink well with almost no ghosting. I did notice a hint of bleed-through with the ultra wide 2.4mm Pilot Parallel but for any normal point you should be just fine.

The binding is quite good and with a little use lies flat (as you can see in the pictures).

The design and feel of this notebook are standouts for me and a welcome change from the wonderful Japanese books I have been using a lot lately. The neon green deers, bookmark, and pastedown are great accents to the grey vichy (gingham) cover and bright white pages.

Neon green pastedown

The Bavaria Book costs about $14 and can be purchased at Gmund’s website. Shipping is from Germany and although it isn’t too expensive, it did persuade me to order a few extra things that I will be reviewing in the coming weeks.

Stálogy is a stationery brand that isn’t particularly well known outside of Japan. They have only been around for a few years and while their line is small, they produce unusually well-executed products.

When I picked up the sample notebook the first thing I noticed was how thin the pages were. Packing 368 pages (184 sheets) into a 14mm thick notebook is impressive. For comparison, my favorite Kokuyo Century Edition notebook only fits 140 pages (70 sheets) into 11mm and with a little bit of math at 14mm the Kokuyo would only hold 178 pages; that’s less than half the Stálogy.

The next thing I noticed was the thirty dollar price tag, yikes! Naturally I convinced myself into buying it; I mean, it has double the pages so really thirty bucks isn’t that bad…right?

Apart from the thin pages this notebook features a free daily dairy. The top of each page lists months, days of the week, and numbers 1-31 so that you can highlight or circle the appropriate date. The 4mm grey grid has the numbers 0-24 printed on every other line; this is a 24 hour timeline.

I found the calendar to be unobtrusive when I just wanted to take notes but also quite useful when I wanted to keep track of my day.

The paper’s performance was very good but being so thin there are some limitations. I would consider this to be fountain pen friendly paper though with my wider nibs I did notice some bleeding and on the really wide 2.4mm nib on my Pilot Parallel there was feathering.

There is also some show through. It’s not as bad as you get on Tomoe River paper but it’s noticeable.

Tiny signatures

With the stitched binding, flexible spine and tiny signatures there is no denying that this is a very high quality notebook, one that warrants its high price.

Would I buy another one? For home use there are other notebooks I like better (like the Kokuyo I mentioned above) but if I wanted to carry a lot of pages in a small package this could be a very good choice.

I am about halfway through my trip and while I haven’t been actively seeking out pens and pen related items I haven’t been able to avoid them.

While in St. Petersburg I found a nice lacquer miniature box made out of paper mache that fits a pen quite nicely.

Minding my own business at the Warsaw airport, I found a duty free store with some rather bold discount signs in a small section of their Montblanc display and I accidentally bought this Platinum Facet Le Grand fountain pen…oops

Today in Budapest I came across BomoArt’s beautiful little shop.

There I bought some very reasonably priced notebooks as well a Le Typographe propelling pencil with built in lead sharpener.

The interior is lined with a beautiful paper featuring hot air balloons.

I picked up a small 2016 calendar as well. It has a leather binding and an antique map paper cover.

The paper is very fine…I was told that it holds fountain pen ink well.

I also bought four pairs of shoes (quadruple oops)…but perhaps this would be best suited for another blog.

Hopefully I will be able to make it through Germany and Austria without buying anything…that’s all I have for now.

For those unfamiliar, Romeo is Itoya’s store brand and under than name they sell pens and pen related items. The products I have seen bearing the Romeo name are all of very high quality unlike typical store brand products.

The Romeo A5 spiral notebook is designed for use with fountain pens and even has a nib and ink bottle embossed in gold leaf on the textured black cover. The interior contains 70 sheets of cream colored paper with a grey ruling and a rather precise 102.9 g/m² weight. This is heavy weight paper and by comparison Rhodia’s paper is only 80 g/m².

As you would imagine that paper handles fountain pen ink link a champion. There was no bleed through in my test and only some minor feathering. Compared to other papers/notebooks I have tested this one is one of the best in terms of ghosting; there is almost none to speak of.

The ghosting is more apparent in the picture than in person

The paper is smoother than Rhodia’s, so if you like a lot of feedback, steer clear. I normally prefer a bit of feedback but it is nice to have a Rolls-Royce smooth ride every once in a while. I like to pair this paper with my fine and extra fine nibs as it makes them feel smoother than normal.

The double spiral binding is made out of brass wire and feels quite sturdy as does the stiff 600 g/m² cover.

This is a great notebook that I have been enjoying using. They cost only 800YEN (or about $6.5USD these days) and for that price you get a lot of notebook. They also come in blank and grid versions and I have seen them for sale on Rakuten (no affiliation).

Il Papiro is an Italian company that has been producing hand decorated paper products since the 1970s. While in Rome earlier this month I spotted their shop and the street and ventured inside. The small shop was filled with beautiful books, stationery and rubber stamps.

The marbleized books immediately caught my eye.

I picked one off of the shelf and the friendly saleswoman proceeded to show me the same book in a couple of sizes and in many different colors.

Because the books are marbleized by hand no two books are exactly the same.

I selected a green book with 10cm x 15cm pages.

The blank pages are of an excellent stationery-grade paper. The paper is watermarked with “Il Papiro Firenze” and their logo.

The paper holds fountain pen ink very well and you should have no problems writing on both sides of this paper.

The paper provides pleasant feedback while still feeling smooth.

If you look closely you can see the stitching.

The book has a stitched binding and small signatures, though not as small as those seen in high-end Japanese notebooks.

The cover has a nice texture that is pleasant to the touch. I really am enamored with this notebook.

So what are the drawbacks? As I am sure you can guess, it’s the price. My little notebook cost me 27€ (or about $30 USD at the time of this writing). I will buy more of these in the future but as a fountain pen user these notebooks are a luxury and not a necessity.

“Ambition” is the 25th release in the Field Notes Colors series of limited edition notebooks.

The three pack contains a datebook, ledger and memo book.

Let me say right off the bat that I do not have any use for a datebook or a ledger and I would have liked more memo books in any of the standard formats (dot grid, blank, lined, etc…). That aside, I think this is one of the very best Colors editions.

As I said earlier in my review of the Hermès Ostrich GM Notebook Cover, I love items that bridge my interests, and while the Rhodia Clic Bloc combines my love of pens with my love of technology it hasn’t exactly won me over.

The Clic Bloc is a notepad that doubles as a mouse pad and unfortunately serving double duty makes it both a bad notepad and a bad mouse pad.

The pad measures 7.5″ x 9″, contains 30 sheets and has a nonskid backing. The Clic Bloc looks like a regular Rhodia notepad with an orange flip over cover, only the Clic Bloc does not have a cover, it is merely a color picture of a folded cover that even has a shadow line.

It is nice that they want this product to look like the other notepads in their line but to me it is a waste of space to print a fake folded cover on every page. I also don’t like that “www. bloc-rhodia.com” is printed on the bottom.

The paper is the same 80g paper that Rhodia is famous for and of course it performs superbly with fountain pen ink. No bleeding or feathering.

It should also be noted that the grid is only on one side of the paper, the opposite side is completely blank. The pad is bound with glue on the bottom and left edges and tears off easily. Because its glued on the left it isn’t going to work well for left handed people as the paper is not going to stay put when you brush against the pad.

As a mousepad, the nonskid backing is not as secure as a regular mousepad but it works well enough.

The backing of the Clic Bloc

I found no tracking issues using the pad but I found the edges of the pad to be uncomfortable to brush up against while moving the mouse around and this is ultimately what caused me to stop using it. It’s just not comfortable.